At the August 16, 2025 Annual Meeting of SOS Maine and the Maine Coastal Coalition, Bob
Foley, President of SOS Maine and Maine Coastal Coalition, and Maine State Representative,
made a presentation of two bills that he introduced in the Maine legislature last year that will
have potential help for coastal property owners and municipalities struggling with the coastal
exposures experienced in the winter of 2024.
Due to severe flooding and coastal damage in January 2024, Maine Governor Mills allowed
wharves, docks and piers to rise by 2 feet — based on that preemption, Bob introduced
legislation to allow homeowners and municipalities to raise their sea walls by 2 feet, which
passed both the House and Senate and signed by the Governor. Property owners and
municipalities can now raise sea walls up to 2 feet. It requires a full NRPA permit, which will
require an engineer to do applications and design the project correctly. Some owners may use
concrete or even granite blocks as source material. There will need to be a support barrier
behind the wall made of sand and vegetation, sea grass or other natural plantings to support
the addition and comply with the sand dune rules.
As an alternative, a property owner could create a special wall made of COIR logs, which are
biodegradable structures made from coconut husks and rolled into logs shapes to create a dune
type structure with sand and plantings to create the dune between the seawall and the
property. If you choose to use these materials it only requires a permit by rule application.
There are no restrictions on height or width. This method is similar to what the property
owners on Drakes Island are using.
The other issue that Bob spoke of was the opportunity to dredge more sand from within the
rivers and estuary that is currently building up and creating erosional issues and flooding. Bob
estimates that there are approximately 1 million cubic yards of sand within the tidal basin and
along the jetties that could be dredged and placed on the Wells beaches. This opportunity is
available for other towns to work with the DEP, Maine Geologic Survey and Marine Resources
to identify and assist in permitting this type of project.